Sealed, Strengthened and Sent: The Sacrament of Confirmation

By Bishop Richard J. Malone

Late on Easter afternoon, driving east on the Thruway, I stopped for
coffee. The woman at the counter asked me, "How was your Easter?" A
gracious, well-intended expression of hospitality, but ... was? How was
my Easter? ... and this on Easter Day! I said, "My Easter is great,
thank you, and it will be for the next 50 days. I pray it will be for
you, too." I never miss a teachable moment, in this case, an opportunity
to make a simple reference to the Great 50 Days, the season from Easter
to Pentecost when the Church basks in the radiance of the Risen Lord
and longs for a new coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.

The Great 50 Days of Easter are also special because this is the high
season for the celebration of the sacrament of confirmation. As we
bishops like to say, we're back on the Chrism Trail. And we love
it! Even at the end of busy office days of meetings and appointments, I
never regret driving out to our parishes to confirm our wonderful young
people. In fact, I look forward to it. It is such a moment of
celebration for our teens, our families, our parishes ... and for me,
too.

I always tell the confirmandi and their families that confirmation
day is a moment of great hope for the Church. Why? Because, to the
extent that the newly confirmed take seriously the full identity of
Jesus' disciple that is theirs as they complete their Christian
initiation and go on to live faithful Catholic lives, to that extent the
work of Christ here in Western New York - and wherever they may go in
years ahead - will be more effectively accomplished. Confirmation seals
us with the gift of the Holy Spirit, strengthens us with courage to bear
witness to Christ, and sends us out on mission. As a song often sung
at confirmation puts it, "Go make a difference! We can make a
difference!"

The Holy Spirit's coming in confirmation is a sure thing. The
sacrament affects that coming and guarantees it. In confirmation, as in
baptism and holy orders, a person is changed in the depth of her/his
very being. Our relationship with Jesus is deepened. Alleluia for that!

But there is more to think about here. The young people we confirm
need the strong support and example of the entire faith community,
beginning with their own families and parishes, if they are to remain
loyal to Jesus Christ and His gospel in a secular and relativistic
culture that is too often apathetic toward, or even dismissive, of that
gospel.

I follow carefully the trends about young people's faith
commitment and involvement in the life of the Church. While we all know
youth whose faith is alive and strong (happily, I encounter them all the
time), there are still far too many for whom reception of confirmation
is nothing more than a sort of "graduation" from religious practice.
Sometimes, sadly, their parents see it that way, too. Major studies bear
this out. In the recent National Study of Youth and Religion, for
example, it was Catholic teens who scored most poorly on major
indicators of religiosity when compared to teens from other Christian
communities.

We need to do a much more effective job with adolescent faith
formation. The National Initiative for Adolescent Catechesis identifies
five critical elements that need to top our agenda. All five must be
integrated and are together fundamental to effective catechesis with our
teens. They are:

Our diocesan Division of Evangelization and Catechesis is fully
committed to this agenda and has effective resources available for
parish use. We offer dynamic initiatives and programs at the diocesan
level. It is the family and the parish, though, that make the critical
difference. I am so grateful to those parents (and grandparents), clergy
and lay pastoral leaders, catechists, sponsors, youth ministers,
Catholic high school faculty and staff, and all those who take up this
challenge with joy and enthusiasm. I know it is not always easy. Thank
you.

So it is Easter. Christ is truly risen. The paschal candle glows
during our liturgies. And we prepare to sing "Come, Holy Spirit" as the
Great 50 Days count down to the glorious Solemnity of Pentecost.

My prayer as we set out again on the Chrism Trail to confirm our
young Church is that faith-filled Catholic adults will accompany our
Confirmation candidates along their Emmaus road so that they may
recognize the loving embrace of the Risen One ... and then wait with
them for that Pentecost moment when, in the sacrament, tongues of fire
will rest on them and they will be empowered to "make bold proclamation
as the Spirit prompt(s) them" (Acts 2). Faithful weekly participation in
the Eucharist nourishes and energizes our teens, indeed all of us, to
take up this mission with conviction, confidence and joy.

The purpose of Confirmation is that the confirmed themselves become
evangelizers, bearers of Christ and His good news to the world ... and
then, one day, be welcomed into heaven, the heart's deepest longing.
Let's pray hard about that one.